The idea is to get even more people.
Before the national day of January 31 against the pension reform, the CGT calls to resume the strike this Thursday in refineries, power plants but also ports and docks.
Emmanuel Macron's reform, which all the unions oppose and which will arrive in Parliament on Monday, would lead to the abolition of special regimes at EDF or Engie (ex-GDF Suez).
Their employees would, for example, also be forced, in the long term, to wait 64 years to receive their retirement.
On January 31, at the call of all the unions, the strike will affect all sectors: schools, civil servants, transport, services… But in the energy sector, the CGT wants to show its muscles and is organizing additional strikes.
📢 RETREATS - A day of action that starts strong... starting tonight‼️
✊ Act and intensify the REPORT OF FORCE#ReformesDesRetraites #retrait pic.twitter.com/YhLB0JUb0x
— FNME (@FNMECGT) January 25, 2023
Among electricians and gas producers, production cuts in nuclear power plants and dams are to be expected from this Thursday, warned Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT.
But they should not cause power cuts for the general public, as they are supervised by the manager of the high and very high voltage lines RTE.
Positive actions and blockages
On the menu for these two days of mobilization, "positive" actions are also planned, à la Robin des Bois: free access, reductions in tariffs, switching to reduced hours and restorations of power for cut households are to be expected, in order to offset the reproaches addressed after the announcement of “targeted cuts”, in particular against elected officials favorable to the reform.
However, as of Wednesday, cuts took place on wind and solar farms in the Montluçon sector, claimed by the CGT.
As always, Enedis will file a complaint.
"We do not want (any) blockages which would be penalizing for all French people and we do not accept any threat", declared Wednesday the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt before the Senate, speaking of "crime" more than "political or militant action".
Read also Strikes against pension reform: SNCF, refineries ... what is being prepared for February
The CGT oil, for its part, wants “a slightly tougher movement”, indicated Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the TotalEnergies Europe committee.
"I don't like the term blocking, but we think that the generalization of the strike is necessary to affect the economy", he added, specifying that he saw there the only way to "roll back the government", unlike 24-hour movements spaced out in time.
In the refineries, the stoppage of the installations is not on the agenda, but, as during the strike of January 19, the shipments of fuels will be blocked towards the depots, with the usual watchword: " nothing goes in, nothing comes out”.
“Get even more strikers”
Oil companies are also planning local actions with port infrastructure employees, with whom joint events could be organised.
The CGT federation of Ports and Docks has indeed called for a 24-hour strike this Thursday, during which it “calls on dockers and port workers to amplify the methods of action”.
For the rest, the CGT Petrole evokes a new day of action which would stick to January 31, the day before or the day after.
The CGT wants to "get even more strikers (...) and show that we master the working tool", commented Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT.
“This dynamic that we need and that for the moment the inter-union does not offer, we are in the process of creating it”, estimated for his part Thierry Defresne, of the TotalEnergies Europe committee, who hopes that the employees will follow this impulse.
